Dr. Singer, a native of Nova Scotia, obtained his B.Sc. Honours (First Class) at Saint Mary's University in 1986. He went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry with an NSERC PGS Award at Simon Fraser University under the supervision of Professor A. C. Oehlschlager. Upon a successful thesis defense in 1992, he took up an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Universität Marburg in Germany under the supervision of Professor Paul Knochel until September 1993 when he took up an Assistant Professor position at his alma mater. He is now a Full Professor and current Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Saint Mary's University. He has also served on the University's Academic Senate and Board of Governors.

Since becoming a faculty member in the department of Chemistry at Saint Mary's University Dr. Singer has employed over 120 undergraduate research assistants including 30 Honours students, 3 Masters students, a Doctoral student, and 11 post-doctoral fellows. He has attracted over 9.5 million dollars of funding for his research from a variety of internal and external sources including NSERC, PRF, CFI, Pfizer Pharmaceutical, Glaxo-Smith-Kline Australia, and PRAC. His current research interests lie in the field of Green Chemistry with particular emphasis on Catalysis and Biomass Processing in Ionic Liquids. This area of interest is complemented by his research in Organometallic Reagents in Organic Synthesis and Synthetic Methodology.

Summary of Current Interests

The development of “Green Chemistry”, or environmentally benign chemistry, is an area of increasing significance in today's society. Green Chemistry is aimed at the reduction or elimination of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products. These goals can be achieved, in part, by increasing reaction yields, rates, and selectivities. Other key components of any “green” process include the ability to recycle and reuse unused reactants, catalysts and solvents while avoiding release of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOC's).

The use of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) in chemical applications has gained significant and varied interest over the last few decades. In addition to use as novel reaction media they have enjoyed applications in materials, catalysis, and separations amongst others. RTILs possess a unique set of chemical and physical properties, some of which are tuneable, making them attractive targets for investigation. Such properties include tuneable liquid range and viscosity, volatility, polarity, and biodegradability. RTILs can also have high conductivity, thermal and electrochemical stability and superior solvating ability.

The overall theme of our research program involves the exploitation of the useful chemical and physical properties of RTILs while being mindful of applying Green Chemistry principles whenever possible. Consequently, our research program has evolved into four main areas of interest: (1) The development of novel ionic organocatalysts that can be recycled through their use in RTIL systems.; (2) The design, synthesis, and characterization of new ionic liquids for use as alternative solvents and materials targeted toward biomass conversion.; (3) Adaptation of bimetallic and organometallic addition reactions to RTIL systems.; (4) The development of functionalized RTIL’s for use in metal separations or in the preparation of RTIL–metal complexes that can be easily recycled as immobilized homogeneous catalysts.

Dr. Singer has taught a wide variety of undergraduate chemistry courses and a selection of graduate level courses in the Masters of Applied Science program. He was awarded the Father William Stewart S.J. Medal for Excellence in Teaching at convocation in May 1999. He is involved in a number of community outreach activities such as annual presentations at the regional high school science teacher's conference, organizing high school tours of the Faculty of Science, the Molecules of Life Elementary School Outreach Program, and lectures at high schools on Green Chemistry. The following is list of courses he has taught: